Knoxville Tennessee Blog

For some time citizens of Knox County have wondered if County Mayor Mike Ragsdale was the Emperor with no clothes. No matter what kind of mistake was made on the western end of the sixth floor of the City County Building or how serious that mistake is, it is always passed off as some trivial issue such as a bookkeeping mistake or clerical error. The news is always given by an underling and along with a positive quote from the County Mayor. 

One Knox County taxpayer has had enough. Lewis Cosby called and talked with the County Mayor on the Hallerin Hill radio program on WNOX and questioned the Mayor Ragsdale for several minutes about the P-Card (purchasing credit card) abuse from the Mayor and his staff as well as the travel expenses for the Mayor, his Chief of Staff Mike Arms, Senior Communications Director Dwight Van de Vate and Chief Financial Officer John Werner. Mayor Ragsdale, as he so often does, was very positive and upbeat. When Lewis Cosby asked the Mayor if a person could examine the P-Card statements and receipts Mayor Ragsdale said, “Come on up anytime, I’ve never met you, I like to have a chance to talk to you, swing by someday.”

WBIR reports that Lewis Cosby did exactly that. In a television interview with WBIR Mr. Cosby, a former CPA who at one time audited Knox County government, expressed his shock with what he had found. Lewis Cosby said, “In all my career, these records as to expenditures and lack of documentation is some of the worst I have ever seen. Records are missing, receipts are missing, entire statements for certain people are missing.”

Lewis Cosby compiled a list of 59 questions about the P-Cards plus more about the Hospitality Account. Mr. Cosby says the Hospitality Account is negative and has been negative for two years. He can’t understand why the Mayor kept spending.

You can watch the Lewis Cosby interview on WBIR here.

Spokesman Dwight Van de Vate released this statement on Tuesday evening:

“At this point, the records in the Mayor’s Office are probably the most closely scrutinized records ever maintained by Knox County and everyone recognizes that there are places where improvement is needed. Obviously we don’t shy away from scrutiny.”

Mr. Van de Vate’s statement wears no clothes.

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale has had a very rough 24 hours. On the Sunday talk shows the County Mayor was the subject of much speculation concerning whether he could finish the remaining three years of his term. On “Inside Tennessee” panelist and prominent local attorney Don Bosch said Ragsdale’s term would be remembered as “The Lobster that ate Knoxville.” If you have not heard the lobster story more about it here and here. 

The biggest surprise was when the head of the Tennessee Conservative Union, Lloyd Daugherty, called for Mayor Ragsdale to resign on Gene Patterson’s show “Tennessee This Week.” Frank Cagle, columnist for the Metro Pulse said the Mayor would not step down voluntarily but might not have a choice if the on going audits turned up more fraudulent charges on county credit cards. Those words would be prophetic in less than 12 hours.

In today’s Halls Shopper News Sandra Clark rates the Ragsdale administration and gives a grade of F in the department of “Making Government better every day.” Sandra Clark writes, “Starting with Tyler Harber flashing his badge at the Copper Cellar and ending with disclosures of P-Card spending yet to come … Ragsdale’s management is a casebook study of what not to do. He made bad hires and supervised them poorly. He handed out purchase cards with little oversight. He divided the world into two groups – friends and enemies. Now the town is laughing about lobster lunches, Princess cruises and the liquor fund. In our land of Oz, Ragsdale is not a wizard, just a little fellow behind a curtain with an expensive suit and two press agents.”

Just when it seemed it could not be a worse 24 hour period Sandra Clark breaks a new story that the County Mayor himself used a county credit card for a medical procedure co-pay. For a colonoscopy of all things. This caused the Mayor’s Communications Director Dwight Van de Vate to have to send an emergency memo on a Sunday night to County Commission members explaining the “mistake”. How does anyone use a Knox County credit card for a medical co-pay? What other mistakes are there?

People want to know when we will get to the bottom of this. As the audits turn up new information on almost a daily basis the office of the County Mayor has become a rudderless ship. Who will be the next to call for the County Mayor to stand down?

Like many people in Knox County I was shocked to read the editorial in the Knoxville News Sentinel today. The title is, “Is county mayor’s office out of control?” 

How convenient. After five years of being the chief cheerleader for the County Mayor now the editorial staff of the News Sentinel wakes up and smells the coffee. This occurs after some serious investigative journalism from WBIR television in Knoxville which has accounted for the resignations of three people very close to the County Mayor. To the Sentinel’s credit reporter Scott Barker has also followed the story closely.

Better late than never but the question does arise, what took so long? Knox County Commissioner Paul Pinkston spoke with WNOX’s Hallerin Hill Tuesday morning and suggested that the Mayor’s office had wined and dined various members of the local press in Knoxville to gain favor. Pinkston also opined that columns concerning the Mayor written in the Knoxville News Sentinel appeared to have been written by Mayor Ragsdale’s right hand man Dwight Van de Vate, the Communications Director for the Mayor. You can hear Commissioner Pinkston’s interview with Hallerin Hill here.

As everyone awaits the audits of the troubled P-cards there is apprehension about the audits of the privately funded “Hospitality fund” which is used for entertainment. Will this audit prove that there was an effort to garner favor with the local press by expensive meals and drinks?

Much more at Knoxviews here and here.